A direct comparison of cytolytic T-lymphocyte responses to Melan-A peptides in vitro: Differential immunogenicity of Melan-A27-35 and Melan-A26-35

Abstract

In this study we directly compared the in vitro responses of T-cells from normal donors and melanoma patients to Melan-A27-35 and Melan- A26-35. These peptides have been previously used in peptide-based vaccination studies. Following three stimulations with peptide-pulsed antigen-presenting cells in vitro, Melan-A-specific cytolytic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) were generated from seven of 20 subjects; two of the seven subjects responded reproducibly to both Melan-A27-35 and Melan-A26-35, three to only Melan-A27-35 and two to only Melan-A26-35. However, CTLs generated with either Melan-A27-35 or Melan-A26-35 showed cross recognition, and both types of CTL could recognize naturally processed antigen ..